Legal work

Russian Justice Initiative prioritizes litigation before the European Court of Human Rights. According to statements from a lawyer at the Court and information from other legal representatives, a total of over 320 cases regarding grave human rights abuse in Chechnya and other North Caucasus republics had been submitted to the Court by December 2011. At this point the Initiative represented clients from North Caucasus in almost 230 of those cases. 

Selection of cases

In selecting cases, the Russian Justice Initiative gives priority to serious violations, such as extrajudicial executions, torture, and disappearances. Potential applicants must express the desire to seek justice for themselves or their relatives and be able to produce sufficient documentation or other evidence of the violation. 

Once a case has been identified, the Russian Justice Initiative Ingushetia team collects documentation of the violation and of all prior attempts to seek justice through the domestic legal system. Once these materials have been collected, the clients authorize Russian Justice Initiative’s lawyers to represent them before Russian judicial bodies and the European Court, and a project lawyer assesses the next steps to be taken within the Russian legal system. In most cases, criminal investigations do not lead to prosecutions. Once the Initiative establishes that a case will make no further progress in Russia (whether due to the authorities’ failure to open or effectively conduct a criminal investigation, or through untimely suspension of an investigation), the Russian Justice Initiative files an application with the European Court of Human Rights.

For more information regarding the project’s methodology for bringing a case before the European Court of Human Rights, please see the following charts:

Step 1 – Preparing an Application.

Step 2 – Submitting an Application to the Court.

Step 3 - Case-processing Flow Chart